Lady Milagro ($104.50) scores huge upset in Autumn Days

OZONE PARK, N.Y. — Lady Milagro had just one win from 10 starts in 2023 but that win came in April in a six-furlong turf race at Aqueduct when she was gunned to the front and held on for a nose victory at odds of 13-1.

Friday, six starts later, Lady Milagro picked up her second win of the year in a six-furlong turf stakes at Aqueduct when she was gunned to the lead by apprentice jockey Luis Rivera Jr. and she was never seriously threatened, upsetting the $150,000 Autumn Days by 1 1/2 lengths at odds of 51-1.

Danse Macabre, the 6-5 favorite, got up for second by a neck over All That Magic, who was a neck better than Sterling Silver. It was a head back to Loon Cry who was followed in the order of finish by Poppy Flower, Itsakeyper, Salvaje, and Headland.

Can’t Buy Love, Mail Order, and Risk Free were all scratched.

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The victory was the first in a stakes for Rivera who only began riding in February and has won 84 races, riding mostly at the Mid-Atlantic tracks and more recently in New York.

“First stakes, being a bug-boy, I can’t explain it … it’s awesome,” Rivera said.

Carlos Martin, the trainer of Lady Milagro, thought enough of Rivera to give him a shot in a stakes even though apprentice riders are not given the five-pound weight allowance they get in overnight races.

“Putting a bug on in a stakes, we figured they thought she was just going to be pace fodder,” Martin said. ”But the kid can ride. I was confident he put the time in with her the last four or five weeks, working her every week for me in the morning. I thought he deserved the opportunity and it turned out well.”

Rivera said that when Mail Order scratched, he thought Lady Milagro was the lone speed in the race. He sent her to the lead and she opened up two lengths through a quarter in 21.69 seconds and a half-mile in 43.84. Her closest pursuers were Salvaje and Headland, who couldn’t keep up and retreated, enabling Lady Milagro to come to midstretch with a five-length lead. Though Danse Macabre cut into the final margin late, Lady Milagro was a clear winner.

“I didn’t think we were going :21, but on the backstretch, she was so comfortable on the lead, I looked back and said ‘she’s so fine,’“ Rivera said. “And whenever I asked her in the stretch she just took off.”

Lady Milagro, a daughter of First Dude owned by Amanda Laderer and Dianette Rivas, covered the six furlongs in 1:07.55 and returned $104.50.

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